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Rebecca "Bex" Fowler
Rebecca Chloe Fowler (born Chloe Jackson and also known as Rebecca Miller), known to everyone as "Bex", is a character on the series, EastEnders. She is played as a teenager by actress/singer Jasmine Armfield. Martin and Sonia's daughter Rebecca, known to everyone, family or no, as "Bex", is the daughter of Martin Fowler (James Alexandrou; James Bye), who owned the fruit and veggie stall in Walford's open-air street market, and his first wife, Sonia Jackson (Natalie Cassidy), a nurse specializing in geriatric patients. When she was born in 2000, her mother had been seeing a young man named Jamie Mitchell, a relative of the Mitchell family. Chloe (as Bex was known then) was born with the help of neighbor Mo Harris (Laila Morse) and her granddaughter, Little Mo Slater (Kacey Ainsworth). Sonia, at that time, unsure of being a mother, put her up for adoption. She would butt heads over this choice with the child's grandmother, Pauline Fowler, who actually slapped Sonia for it and instigated a fight over custody of the child. That was dropped though when Martin didn't want to be a father. However, there would be more enmity between Sonia and Pauline up to the latter's death. Like any mother, Pauline didn't think Sonia was good enough for Martin and the two would fight continually for the final six years of Pauline's life. Meanwhile the child was adopted by Neil and Sue Miller, but Sonia realized the gravity of the situation, and she kidnapped Chloe. While she was with the Millers, she was given her current name of Rebecca, Chloe being retained as her middle name. Eventually Sonia returned her to her adoptive parents, but it was later arranged for Sonia to regain the child after the death of the adoptive parents and the adopted grandmother, Margaret Wilson. Things would become worse when Sonia was arrested for Pauline's murder. It was later revealed that Sonia hadn't killed her. Bex left with her parents in 2007 on a trip to America where they would stay with her aunt Michelle Fowler, and they would later move to Manchester. She would return some years later, a beautiful teenager, with a flair for music and playing the guitar (Jasmine Armfield, who plays Bex, is also a very talented singer and guitarist). She was reintroduced when she was visiting her maternal grandmother, Carol Jackson (Lindsay Coulson). Bex's family includes a large amount of people, including Dot Branning, her great grandmother (Carol was Dot's stepdaughter, she had been married to Jim Branning, Carol's father); Tiffany Butcher; Liam Butcher; Bianca Jackson, Robbie Jackson; Ian Beale; among many others. She has had her share of growing pains as well, especially when she went for a period as a goth and taking her original name of Chloe. It turned out that her friend, Star, was also goth. Both dropped the Goth look and they never went back. She is currently a student at Walford High School, where she attends with her long-time best mate, Louise Mitchell (Tilly Keeper) and arch-enemy, Alexandra D'Costa (Sydney Craven). In a legal sense, Bex and Louise are cousins (since Louise's legal father was the late Mark Fowler. her paternal uncle), although Louise's birth father is Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden). Bex also has two cousins via her aunt Michelle, Vicki Fowler; and Mark Fowler, Jr. (His father was Grant Mitchell). Bex had been the center of a sexting scandal when, as it turned out, it was Louise (but was revealed that it had been Alexandra who had done the dirty deed), who had uploaded a pornographic picture of Bex and Shakil Kezumi online. Bex would be cautioned for this. This caused Alexandra and her mate, Madison Drake (Seraphina Beh), to begin to bully Bex viciously. They would not let up on her, their methods including humiliation, Alexandra sticking gum in her hair, the two of them smashing her guitar and breaking her strings continually. The bullying became so traumatic that Bex would not even go outside. Her life was in pieces and she was totally shattered. In tears, Bex called her mother, Sonia, to come from Kettering. Upon arrival, she took Martin, along with his new wife, Stacey, Michelle Fowler and Jean Slater to task about not being there for her. She insisted that Bex move with her back to Kettering, but eventually, Bex remained where she was. Louise would be grounded for her bullying of Bex by her stepmother, Sharon Watts, after a row between her and Sonia in which the latter shoved the former into a duck pond at a street fair. The culmination of the bullying came at a talent showcase at the high school. The scheming bullies again broke one of Bex's strings on her guitar, and while she was trying to fix it, they grabbed her and shoved her into a supply closet in the Drama classroom, and locked the door. However, what the bullies failed to reckon with was that her microphone was on, and Shakil turned the volume up on the soundboard to clue in everyone on what was happening to Bex. Thanks to Mr. Gethin Pryce, the drama club adviser and Sonia, Bex was rescued and was found safe. Louise turned on the bullies, and with Martin's aid, tells them that since her friend's mike was on, everyone heard the bullying as it occurred...to Alexandra's sheer horror. The bullies were ordered into the head teacher's Mrs. Robyn Lund's office. As a result of their appalling behavior, and Louise and Bex's corroborating statements to what had happened, Madison and Alexandra were put on external isolation and were banned from attending the upcoming Walford High Prom. After the experience, Bex was convinced to sing and she did so to an appreciative audience. Still intent on making trouble for Bex and Louise, Alexandra schemed with fellow troublemaker, Keegan Baker, to circumvent the restrictions to let her and Madison go into the school. Their aim was to sabotage the prom after Louise and Bex exposed their bullying. In perhaps one of the most cruel examples of grievous bodily harm ever seen, Alexandra viciously shoved Louise into a table full of lit candles. She was severely burned as her prom dress went up in flames. Bex was enjoying the dance, when all of a sudden, the fire alarms went off and the sprinkler systems went on. All of a sudden, she froze when she found out it was Louise who was burned. She ran to her best mate's side and never left her side even while the rest of her classmates did their best to help ease Louise's pain. Bex, who could get very emotional, cried by herself while she waited to hear what happened to Louise. Alexandra and Madison were arrested for their vicious attack on Louise (Alexandra had done the act itself, and she tried to frame her own friend, Madison, for it, which broke their friendship up and caused them to come to blows), prosecuted as adults for it; and, presumably found guilty with the result of Alexandra and Madison being expelled from Walford High because of their assault. Bex and Shakil became closer friends and were on the road to becoming a couple. He was her best comfort when Sonia moved to Kettering. However, all that ended quite brutally, when in 2018, Shakil and his friend, Keegan Baker, were stabbed by a gang. Shakil died of his injuries in hospital, and Bex mourns him to this day. Like her grandmother, Pauline and her late great-grandmother, Lou Beale, Bex has become the one who is the glue that holds her family together. She and Michelle (who was played by Jenna Russell at that point) almost fell out over a young man that had been dating both of them...or, more aptly, playing them against one another! Preston Cooper (Martin Anzor) was an American student who had been tutored by Michelle while she had lived in Florida. He became enamored of her and began his pursuit of her. It is clear to note that Michelle didn't initiate the relationship, he did. This relationship, very illegal and was done in the same vein as the Mary Kay LeTourneau case, had ended her twenty-year marriage to her husband, Tim; cost her a job as a teacher in Pensacola, and alienated her son (by Grant Mitchell), Mark Fowler, Jr., who was only a year older than Preston. A unknowing Bex had been dating him to hide his secret. However, as always, during a big get-together at the Queen Vic, (Walford's local public house) Michelle and Preston's illegal relationship was revealed. That was thanks to stepsiblings Dennis Rickman Jr, and Louise finding out the whole sordid situation. The revelation horrified Bex and savaged her. She would order Preston to leave her alone. When they heard their argument, Whitney Dean (Shona McGarty) and her stepmother, Stacey Slater would also order him to leave her alone. Stacey punctuating the order by saying that he could leave or she would hit him so hard that he would see stars. An infuriated Martin, upon discovering what he had done to Michelle and Bex, slugged Preston and found out the full story from her while they talked at Ian's home. Disgusted by what had happened, he denounced Michelle, although later on, they reconciled and they rebuilt their sibling relationship, especially after Michelle had crashed into the Chip shop while drunk and hooked on sleeping pills. He also had one other thing on his mind, helping the distraught Bex through this crisis. Michelle was hospitalized and had to be operated on. Martin, despite his anger at Michelle, stayed with her, and saw her through this tough time. She had made a full recovery, reconciled things with Bex (eventually) and had her best friend, Sharon Mitchell (Letitia Dean) have Preston leave London for good. Bex would settle in to being a great help to her dad, whom she has a very close relationship with, Stacey, with whom she gets along with beautifully (although at times it could be strained, especially when Stacey had an affair with her former father-in-law, Max Branning), and helping to raise her three half-siblings, Lily (Stacey's oldest daughter, by Ryan Molloy) Arthur (his father was Martin's best friend, Kush Kazemi, whom he adopted) and Hope, Martin and Stacey's natural born child. At one point, Bex would kiss her drama teacher, Mr. Price, who was dating her mother, Sonia. Sonia would find this out, and would wrathfully eject Mr. Price out of her house and her life. "GET OUT OF MY HOUSE, BEFORE I BREAK YOUR NECK!" Sonia would rasp at her ex. After talking it over, she would reassure Bex that she did nothing wrong. Martin, upon hearing about it and talking it over with Sonia, would also reassure his daughter that she wasn't at fault. Martin would joke though that he would keep Bex's half-sister, Hope, in her room when she was in double digit ages. This helped Bex relax, as she always had a close bond with her father. They lived in her father's house at 31 Albert Square. Also currently living there was Stacey, her mother, Jean (Gillian Wright); her cousin, Kat (Jessie Wallace) and her gran, Mo. Eventually, she and her dad would move in with Sonia after a furious Stacey changed the locks on the doors at number 31, but they would eventually reconcile. Bex would live with her mother and her uncle Robbie Jackson (Dean Gaffney). Bex and Martin would still see one another and she has also relented on her dad to be with Stacey. They would mourn Shakil together. It is clear that Bex has the same strength and determination that defines all the bloodlines of the Fowler/Beale, Branning and Jackson families. She is also one of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet. However, you cross her or anyone she loves and cares about, and she can become quite a formidable foe; but her real trait is bringing out the best in the people she meets. With her talent at music and her strength and optimistic attitude (forged by the suffering and trauma that she has went through) she is definitely going to go far. Even though she can be embarrassed by her parents displays of affection towards her in public (like any normal teenager), Bex knows that she can rely on her parents, her extended family (blood and otherwise) and Stacey to be there for her when she needs them, and she also can rely on the fact that they love her very dearly. Bex and Sonia would have a nasty row over her future plans. Bex wasn't sure about school, and Sonia, who was quite well off after a former patient of hers bequeathed her money to her, wanted her to attend school. After a lot of heated words (topped off by a creative apology by Sonia, writing various forms of apology on a pile of Post-It notes), Bex would eventually apply, but she made it clear that it would be on her merits, and not on her mother's money. This suited Sonia just fine and she hugged her daughter. However, relations between her and her folks became strained when they began to stress her about going to Oxford, where Bex felt she wouldn't have done well. Trying to do her exams, and trying to remain focused, she began to take ADHD medication, the side effects which caused her to lash out and become very paranoid and scared. She also became obsessed with Kush (having never gotten over Shaki's death), and this led up to Martin and Kush no longer being friends, but now mortal enemies. Scared out of her mind and beyond paranoid, Bex would flee to nearby Shoreditch. Tempers began to flare as Martin and Sonia were frightened for their little girl. After some fights between Martin and Kush, as well as a fistfight between Martin and Stuart Highway, people helped the petrified couple in waiting to find her. In fact, Stuart, aided and accompanied by Rainie Branning (not two of the most sympathetic people in the best of times), were the ones who finally found a paranoid and frightened Bex, convincing her to trust them and to return to Walford with them. After another argument with Kush, which also had Max and Jack Branning at the ready to defend their great niece (as Sonia was their niece), Stuart and Rainie helped shepherd the prodigal back to home and hearth. Sonia and Martin's grieving hearts were gladdened to see their girl back home and safe. A heart-to-heart ensued where Martin tried to grill her, with varying amounts of disapproval from both his former and current wives. Stacey understood why she took the ADHD meds. She understood how Bex was unable to cope with the stress and she saw the meds as a lifeline. Sonia helped get her daughter into a warm bath, and some food in her stomach. Then Martin came over and calmly reassured her that even though he had been scared by her running off, she could never let him and Sonia down. Bex also promised that she would never take that kind of medication again, as the side-effects were brutal. After one more question about Kush maybe taking advantage of her, which she replied truthfully that he hadn't; Martin pulled his exhausted daughter into his lap and held her as she drifted off to sleep, safe and secure in her daddy's arms. After that, Bex settled down again, and the family had another talk about her future, with no acrimony. Bex doing a runner had frightened them all, but it had the desired effect of bringing them even closer and stronger as a family. However, the strain would rear its head again, and Bex, having a very bad anxiety attack, attempted suicide by overdosing on pills mixed with booze. Fortunately, she was found by her mother and was taken to hospital. What made matters worse was Martin had left town with his wife, Stacey and their daughters, Lily and Hope (their son, Arthur was left with his biological father, Kush Kazemi). Without her father, Bex was adrift and felt alone and useless, which led to her suicide attempt. Louise's mother, Lisa (Hannah Waterman), tried to reach out to her, due to her own mental issues, but Bex wasn't responsive. Category:EastEnders characters